A VC in Vacationland

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Hey, we are not speaking about two years ago when Amazon ran out of Kindles.  E Books have been a big success for Amazon for a long time, in spite of the fact that only 1% of the population uses it.  That's still a lot of sales.

And now Sony and Barnes & Noble did not make enough to satisfy even preliminary demand in November? What gives here? The B&N Nook is out of stock on the company’s web site and it is now taking orders for devices that will ship next year. Analysts say that the Nook wasn’t ready for shipment in huge quantities and B&N probably launched it anyway to head off sales for Amazon’s rival Kindle eBook reader.  The Sony Reader, another e-book competitor, also is not guaranteed to ship by the holidays, according to Sony's Web site. "Pre-orders will ship Dec. 18 thru Jan. 8. Actual delivery date cannot be guaranteed," the site says.

Are Sony and Barnes & Noble that bad at forecasting? It will be interesting to hear the forensics on this debacle.  E Books have the potential to be the product of the year.  Amazon will reap the lion's share of the profits…again. Oh, there is Spring Design's Alex as well, but that is not expected to ship until, you guessed it, spring.

Update: according to Paid Content, one newcomer that did make that promise will be missing: the iRex DR800SG, which had shelf space guaranteed at Best Buy and planned initially to be on some of them by the end of October. That slipped to November, then again.  iRex Technologies execs have declined interviews or detailed comment but a company rep told paidContent today it “has experienced unexpected delays” and isn’t issuing a new delivery date yet. That will have to wait until early January—at the earliest.

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